Señor Rengifo to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

Hon. Mr. Secretary:

In fulfillment of our agreement at the interview that you did me the honor to accord me yesterday I acquaint you with the dates of the communications addressed by this legation to your honorable Department relative to the proclamation of the 15th of March of last year, which imposed discriminating duties on coffee, hides, etc., of Colombian origin on being imported into the United States, to which communications my Government instructs me to call your attention. The said notes were addressed on the following dates: March 25, May 11 and 18, June 5, and July 28 of the past year.

The communications of March 25, May 11, and July 28 have not been answered, and the reply given to the other notes mentioned does not weaken the arguments they contain in favor of the rights they seek to establish.

I consider it absolutely inopportune to make to the honorable Secretary a statement of facts and an enumeration of the reasons which support my Government’s contention that not only the special stipulations contained in articles 2 and 5 of the treaty concluded between the United States of America and the Republic of Colombia in 1846 have been plainly violated by the proclamation issued the 15th of March, 1892, but that itis also contrary to the general spirit of that compact, considering that the reading of the communications, the, dates of which I have cited, will amply satisfy said purposes, and will carry to your mind the conviction that my Government has more than reason to hope to be immediately restored to the enjoyment of the rights which the treaty guarantees to it, and the reparation of the injuries, by the restitution of the duties collected on Colombian products that may have been imported during the time the proclamation remained in force, and which were of course paid under protest.

Those communications contain, moreover, the relation of precedents of indisputable force concerning the manner in which the United States has interpreted clauses analogous to those included in articles 2 and 5 of the treaty of 1846 in its treaties with other nations, as well as the spirit and intentions that moved the two contracting nations to conclude that treaty, and set forth the true situation of the commercial relations between the United States and Colombia, making evident the indisputable advantages enjoyed by the United States; for this reason I confine the myself to ratifying their contents and to reiterating the demand for remedy made in them, of the order of things created by the so often cited proclamation of March 15, 1892, so prejudicial to the well-known interests of the two countries.

As I had the honor to represent to the honorable Secretary my Government earnestly desired to strengthen more and more the commercial relations existing beeween the United States of America and Colombia; but to obtain that result it is absolutely indispensable to remove the discriminating duties imposed on our products, which make it impossible to us to compete with similar products of other countries and virtually close for us the American markets. Nations, generally speaking, buy where they sell, and if Colombia can not realize on its products in the United States, the commercial current which can only [Page 490] be directed by convenience, will necessarily find its way to other countries where may be found the advantages that are here denied, a fact of which the alarming symptom is already noted in the latest statistics.

Consequently considerations of a very distinct order concur for the revocation of the proclamation of March 15, 1893; those which originate in respect for the faith plighted in the treaty of 1846, and to this respect my Government, which has the most absolute confidence in the spirit of justice which animates that of the United States, is certain that they will suffice to prompt the acts of reparation due to it and those which are independent of the natural desire to protect one’s own commercial interests, of which the Government of the United States has always shown itself to be so justly jealous.

I remain entirely at the orders of the honorable Secretary of State to enlarge and elucidate, verbally or in writing, any point in the correspondence of the Legislature that he may find obscure.

With sentiments of the highest consideration, I have, etc.

Julio Rengifo,
Chargé d’ Affaires ad interim.